Russia’s Sodrugestvo secures expansion finance

Feed ingredients supplier investing in soy facilities and transport

Russia’s largest supplier of feed ingredients is to receive US$40 million in loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Sodrugestvo Group will borrow US$25 million over three years from EBRD towards working capital for its soybean crushing operation. There will also be a seven-year loan of US$15 million for a transport subsidiary to purchase up to 500 railway wagons to carry finished products, such as soybean meal, to customers and to bring rapeseed for crushing.

The group plans to start local sourcing of up to 50,000 metric tons of rapeseed per year for processing at its recently-opened crushing plant in Russia’s westernmost port, Kaliningrad. It also intends to use its Kaliningrad port facilities for exporting about 150,000 tons of grain per year as well as 100,000 tons of sugarbeet and 50,000 tons of rapeseed.